Florida City That Willingly Signed Deal With ICE Finds Itself in Crisis

The City of Doral is in crisis. Since Donald Trump returned to office in 2025, the Florida municipality has found itself in the crosshairs of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), with ongoing raids and targeted operations that seem to be intensifying in recent weeks.

Nearly half of Doral’s population is from Venezuela, the largest population of Venezuelans in any city in the United States. This is a diaspora that finds itself under constant attack by the Trump administration, as more than 615,000 have lost or are facing the termination of their temporary protected status (TPS) following revocations, and Venezuelans make up 59 percent of all immigrants affected by mass terminations of TPS designations. These are the same people who now find themselves in the crosshairs of enforcement operations in Doral. The recent earthquakes in Caracas that have killed thousands and destroyed critical infrastructure did nothing to stop these attacks against Venezuelan immigrants, despite the country obviously being in no condition to receive hundreds of thousands of these nationals back if they were to be deported.

Despite presiding over such a vulnerable population, Doral’s government was one of the first in the state to sign a 287(g) agreement under the second Trump administration, deputizing local police with specific federal immigration enforcement powers. The mayor and council members did this under no requirement, mandate, or obligation, as Florida statute requires only counties and sheriff’s departments operating jails or detention facilities to sign these types of agreements, and Doral operates neither.

Now that public sentiment is turning against them, amid the draconian immigration enforcement we see across the country daily, Doral politicians are trying to have it both ways. Mayor Christi Fraga continues to mischaracterize the 287(g) agreement that the city signed under her tenure, falsely claiming that it is not a direct partnership with ICE, and that the state of Florida obligated Doral to sign on. As already established, this is simply not true, and Fraga claims that the city can’t rescind the agreement because their “responsibility as elected officials is to follow the law as it exists.” Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has claimed that cities like Doral can’t revoke 287(g) agreements because this would create a de facto sanctuary city jurisdiction. This is nonsense, as Doral still falls under the correctional jurisdiction of Miami-Dade County, which actively funnels people from its local jails into ICE detention.

It seems Fraga, who supported the signing of the 287(g) contract in Doral, may be obfuscating in this manner because she doesn’t want to burn any political capital rescinding the agreement and would rather do photo ops with Trump. During the president’s visit to Doral for the “Shield of the Americas” Summit, Fraga sat next to him during a meal, even as heightened levels of immigration enforcement under his administration are separating her constituents’ families. When asked for comment for this article Fraga responded by sharing a letter she sent to Florida’s Attorney General James Uthmeier asking for legal clarification on whether localities are obligated to remain in the 287(g) program, which Uthmeier has not responded to.

Similarly, Doral Councilman Rafael Pineyro, who voted in favor of Doral’s 287(g) agreement, is trying to have it both ways as a Republican who supported Trump and has not outright broken with him, but who is increasingly pushing back as hardline immigration crackdowns intensify in Doral.

Pushing back with mumbled statements and an ineffectual letter expressing disagreement with the rescinding of TPS and stating that the “law can be enforced without losing our humanity,” Pineyro exemplifies the do-nothing approach of politicians across South Florida who supported Trump, who in turn paid them back by separating families and creating chaos in our neighborhoods. Pineyro did not respond by press time when offered the chance to comment.

Residents of Doral, especially the immigrant families disproportionately targeted by ICE enforcement, deserve better than this. The damage is also spreading to business owners, who complain about the widespread fear impacting commerce as people stay home and avoid shopping. Restaurants like Chaguarma Grill have gone on the record with Telemundo to announce their closure, as they have neither clients nor workers. Other food establishments have lost up to 40 percent of their clientele.

Doral is hardly the only municipality in Florida besieged by heightened levels of aggressive immigration enforcement and facing calls by residents to stop local cooperation with ICE. The City of Miami also needlessly signed a 287(g) agreement last summer, as three out of five commissioners ignored hours of public testimony from residents who overwhelmingly opposed deputizing their police department to conduct immigration enforcement operations. Since then, we have seen ICE agents indiscriminately stop people in Little Havana, asking for their immigration status, and Uber drivers being stopped and detained on main roads. People are being stalked and taken by ICE outside places of worship.

This is occurring without the militarized-style raids seen in other parts of the country, such as Minneapolis, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Instead, Florida’s high rate of immigration arrests is driven largely by cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities through 287(g) agreements. The result is a state where immigration enforcement has become pervasive, reaching far beyond traditional immigration agencies. The Florida Lottery, the Florida Department of Financial Services, and even police departments at public universities have entered into 287(g) agreements with ICE.

The Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) has taken this role particularly far, making thousands of immigration arrests in recent months after Gov. Ron DeSantis announced a 287(g) partnership between the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles and ICE. The agreement gives FHP troopers authority to question people about their immigration status during traffic stops, effectively turning routine encounters with state law enforcement into potential immigration-enforcement encounters.

The expansion has reached even agencies with little traditional connection to immigration enforcement. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) — whose law-enforcement mission has historically centered on hunting, fishing, boating safety, and habitat protection — has increasingly been drawn into immigration enforcement. Roughly 90 percent of its law-enforcement personnel (about 800 of nearly 890 officers) have been deputized under 287(g). The training has reportedly been so limited that one officer described feeling like a “newborn giraffe with wobbly legs trying to make its way around.” These agreements illustrate how immigration enforcement has been woven into the ordinary operations of state and local government, extending from highway traffic stops to wildlife officers, university police, professional licensing agencies, and even the state lottery.

So, the question for Mayor Fraga and Doral’s councilmembers is a simple one: Will they continue to feign empty sympathy for the plight of their immigrant constituents, the families impacted, and the businesses struggling, without doing anything to address this issue? Or will Doral’s leaders rectify their mistake in needlessly signing on to a 287(g) agreement and rescind it — something they can legally do under Florida law? While cities like Doral and Miami excuse their inaction by claiming that they fear removal from office by Governor DeSantis if they rescind the 287(g) agreements they irresponsibly signed, the City of South Miami provides a case study in successful pushback against state pressure to comply with overzealous immigration crackdowns.

A lawsuit filed by South Miami sought to clarify whether state law required municipalities to establish police-ICE cooperation. Although the case was dismissed for lack of legal standing, attorneys for the DeSantis administration acknowledged during oral arguments that the state does not require every municipality to enter into a 287(g) agreement with ICE.

Similarly, after facing opposition from residents, Miami Shores deferred a proposed 287(g) agreement. South Miami, Miami Shores, and two-thirds of municipalities in Miami-Dade continue to operate without entering into these agreements, demonstrating that local governments retain the ability to decline this form of cooperation, and highlighting the political cowardice of officials in cities like Doral and Miami.

Will Doral officials do the right thing and stop their police coordination with ICE? Time will tell — but for many of Doral’s residents, time is something they do not have.